A Hogwarts Tale
by IAmAFantasyFan
Summary: Abigail McCracken is decended from one of the oldest wizarding families: the Hufflepuff family! So she travells to england to go to the school that her ancestor founded, Hogwarts. While there she is thought to be a typicall shy, studious ravenclaw. However, there is another secret side to her: Abigail (or Holly) is part of the group, Mauarders 11!
1. Meeting Dumblydore

Disclaimer: This story is based on the Harry Potter series written by J.K. Rowling, who may own some of the content. For example, the sorting hat song.

Harry potter and me

Chapter 1, a Witch?:

In a nice country house, on a nice country day, Abigail McCraggen was reading a book. Yes, it was a school book, but she still managed to get herself lost in it. Abigail had a way with books. Or, as you might say, books had a way with her. That is why, on such a beautiful summer's day, Abigail was holed up in her room-that-was-really-more-a-library. That is why, on that fine summers day, Abigail did not even notice the persistent ringing of the door-bell. So her younger brother Daniel answered it, with 5 year old Evelyn peeking behind him. Standing behind the door was a tall, old man. Actually, an ODD old man.

"Hello," he said, in a strong English accent, "is your mother home?" Daniel stared. The old man was wearing what looked to be the remains of an old, moth-eaten, purple velvet suit. His blue eyes twinkled behind silver half-moon glasses, and he was wearing what looked to be the remains of an old, moth-eaten, purple velvet suit. All in all, he was quite an intimidating stranger for the shy McCraggen kids.

"Uh, yeah... I'll get her," Daniel said, and ran off leaving Evelyn behind, frozen with fear at the sight of such a stranger. The man quickly won her over with a few well placed peppermints, however, and she "welcombed him inthide." Then their mother came and took charge of the situation. Abigail, meanwhile, was still far away in China, watching Hudson Taylor try to save a drowning man.

"Please," Lily said," come inside."

"I will, thank-you." Said the stranger, and Rachel led him into the family room.

"Now, how can I help you?" She asked.

"I have come concerning your daughter, Abigail McCraggen."

"Would you like me to call her?"

"Certainly!"

"Daniel," Rachel said, "go fetch Abigail, and then take Evelyn and Chloe outside, please."

"Sure, mum." he said, and ran off. Evelyn stayed, obviously hoping to get more sweets.

"Nice place you have here," he said

"Thank-you, we just moved in a few days ago."

"Really?" he said, "you must be quite busy."

"Oh, we keep ourselves occupied." She said, shoving a box away and sitting on the piano bench. "The kids are helping to unpack, so that helps a lot." Just then Stephen came back and dragged Evelyn off, and a few moments later a slightly dazed looking Abigail wandered into the room. She soon came to herself, however, and looked at the stranger with much curiosity.

"Allow me to introduce myself," said the stranger, "I am Professor Dumbledore, and I have come to discuss Abigail future education. You may not have realized it, see, but the family that you married into," (this to Lily) "is a very old family, and has certain... oddities; one of which being the fact that the Mortons are directly descended from the sister of a very famous and prosperous witch by the name of Helga Hufflepuff. Yes, a witch," he said in answer to their dubious looks, "but let me get on with my story and you can ask as many questions as you want when I'm finished. Anyway, the ancestor in question, Holly Hufflepuff, was also a witch, but remarkably gave up her powers and lived as a muggle (that is, a non magical human). Every now and then, growing more rare of course, one of her descendents inherits magical powers. The funny thing is, they all follow the lead of their ancestor (or your ancestor, I guess,) and chose a different way of life. That is something no witch or wizard outside the McCraggen family has ever done. Your Grandpa," (this time to Abigail) "Also had the opportunity. I am here today to tell you, Abigail, that you possess certain magical qualities, and if you wish to become a witch you may be accepted into my school: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Abigail gaped at him.

"Grandpa is a _wizard_?"

"no," Professor Dumbledore said, "he had the opportunity to be one. Being a McCraggen, however, he chose not to. I suppose you will do the same?" Abigail stared at him, amazement and shock written across her face. Because both Abigail and her mum lived half in fictional worlds, however, it took remarkable less time for them to accept this huge news than most people would.

"Do something magic!" Abigail said excitedly, and as an afterthought, "please". Smiling, Professor Dumbledore reached into his pocked, drew out a wand, and tapped the piano that had been placed carelessly in a corner of the room by the movers. As the piano played itself (Beethoven's fifth symphony), Abigail's grin grew broader and broader.

"I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't accept!" she said, "Mum, can I?"

"You want to?" her mom asked, "Professor Dumbledore just said that McCraggens always chose not to."

"I think," Abigail replied, "that I inherited something from your side of the family too. Curiosity, a thirst for adventure, and a want for the easy way to do things." Lily laughed,

"yep! That's what I'd have done too. Of course, we'll need to talk it over with your dad, but I don't see why he would be opposed to it."

"Tell you what," Professor Dumbledore said, "I'll come back tomorrow, and you can give me your final answer then. That will give you a chance to think about it. Second guess yourself." He winked at Abigail, who was barely restraining herself from whooping for joy, "although I doubt there's going to be much second guessing!"

"That sounds good." Lily replied, and led Dumbledore out, leaving her daughter to dream about being a witch. Abigail was pretty useless for the rest of the day. She went on a very long walk, and tried to do magic. She was almost positive that she got a rock to move by staring at it really hard; but only slightly. Rachel wasn't much better. She decided to make a special meal for the occasion, but was so absent minded that she burned everything. The family got cold leftovers for supper. After supper Lily took John aside and explained everything to him. Then they called a family meeting. All in all, when Dumbledore got back later in the afternoon the next day, the whole family was waiting for him to say,

"yes!"

"Wonderful!" he beamed, as he sat back on the couch, "Now we need to talk about which school she will go to. She can go to the institute of magic, which is ideal because it is only a five hour drive north of here, or she can go to my school, Hogwarts, which is indeed ideal because it is known as the best in the world; and her ancestor was one of It's founders. The drawback to going to Hogwarts is that it is in England." The family was silent for a moment, and then,

"You can decide, Abigail" said Dad, "which sounds better to you?"

"well," she said slowly, "I wouldn't see my family very often either way, would I? So, I choose Hogwarts, but please Professor Dumbledore, I want Abigail to stay the Abigail that I know, can I go as Holly McCraggen? After my ancestor?"

"That sounds fine." He said. "And as for getting there, how would the whole family like to go on vacation to England this summer?" Everyone cheered. "Abigail can be accepted into a boarding school in England, and Holly will go to Hogwarts. Here is a letter with everything else you will need to know, see you at Hogwarts!" and handing them an envelope, he disappeared.

Dear Miss McCraggen,

We are pleased to inform you that you that you have been accepted into Hogwarts

School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The train to the school leaves platform 9 ¾, Kings cross station, at precisely 9:00 am. Be sure that you do not miss it! Attached is a list of school supplies that can be purchased at Hawgtharn's Wizarding world, second floor of the paisley mall in Toronto. You may bring an Owl OR a cat, OR a toad to school with you. Broomsticks are not allowed for first-years. Also attached are tickets for a plane to England that is leaving the Toronto air-port at 10:00 am, August the 25th. We will be waiting for you here to take you to your hotel. Best of wishes,

_A Dumbledore_

(headmaster)

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.**

**Uniform**

first year students will require:

three sets of plain work robes (black)

One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

One pair of protective gloves (dragonhide or similar)

On winter cloak (black with silver fastenings)

_please note that all pupils' clothing should carry name tags_

**Set books**

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The standard book of spells, Grade 1

A History of Magic

Magical Theory

A beginners guide to transfiguration

One thousand magical herbs and fungi

Magical drafts and potions

Fantastic beasts and where to find them

The Dark forces: a guide to self-protection

**Other equipment**

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set of glass phials or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set of brass scales

students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

Parents are reminded that first-years are not allowed their own broomsticks.


	2. Hawgtharn's

Remember: This story is based on the stories by J.K. Rowling! I do not claim all of the content!

Chapter 2, Hawgtharn's Wizarding World:

"Abigail! Ah-bih-gaaaal! Where IS she?" John McCraggen complained to his wife, Lily, "Ever since Dumbledore popped in she's been raring to go, and NOW ABIGAIL'S DISAPPEARED!" After searching the entire house and yard for her, John was in a very foul mood indeed. Meanwhile, oblivious to all the fuss, Abigail was sitting in the car wondering where on earth her parents were.

"what could be keeping them so long?" she thought, "Grandma and Grandpa have come to babysit, everything is packed for a long day trip, don\t they know how much I want to go now?" Finally she left the car to go look for them. "Mum!" she stormed into the kitchen, "what are you doing?"

"looking for you!"

"I've been _waiting_ for you, in the car!"

"Well," said John, coming in, "you could have told us. Anyway, all set? Let's go!" They got back in the car and set off on the long tedious hour-long (if you're lucky and there's no traffic) trip to Toronto. Of course, it ended up being more than an hour long.

"Oh, not again!" Abigail moaned as the traffic on the 401 slowed from a painstaking crawl to a stop. "The one day it matters, and there are 5 consecutive car crashes!"

"Good grief, Abigail." Mum chided, "what's gotten into you? I mean, I know you don't like car crashes, but honestly! So what we're arriving half an hour later than planned."

"Well," said Abigail, "you must admit that this **is** a pretty exciting time in my life! I'm going to my first wizarding store! And I've had time to think about it, unlike professor Dumbledore's visit."

"yes," said mum, "I think that's the problem. You're making this out to be way more than it really is. Just relax, and we'll get there 5 times quicker."

"yeah, right." Abigail thought, but on the outside she took her mum's advice and at least looked calm and patient. It really was kind of weird, though. She had never had a problem waiting for something good. In fact, waiting was one of the best parts! Unless, of course, it was something like this and she had absolutely no idea what to anticipate. Then she was just 100% impatient. Abigail gazed idly out the window, watching the scenery as they inched past it. The 401 did not have very good scenery, because they had built walls around it to stop the sound of cars from traveling. "no need for that," Abigail thought bitterly, "there aren't any moving cars to make sound." Stop. start. Stop. Start. Well, at least she wasn't car sick! Stop. Start. Stop. Start. Carsickness is sounding pretty good, you know, a bit of excitement. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. "Finally!" Abigail said, "The CN tower! Only about 2 more days until we get to downtown Toronto."

"You realize that we've only been in the car for two hours, right?" Lily asked,

"Yeah, but I forgot my book!" Abigail said.

"you WHAT?" Forgetting to bring your book for a car ride is almost a capital offense for Abigail and her Mum.

"I guess I was kinda preoccupied."

"Well, we'll be there soon. And you can read your textbooks on the way home."

"Yeah!" said Abigail, brightening a little because she had been dreading the drive back home. Within half an hour they had parked in front of the paisley mall. "uh, Mum? Dad?" Abigail said, "there is no second floor." Sure enough, there was a beautiful one-story mall.

"I don't think," Mum said, "that they'd build a wizarding emporium for all the world to see. Let's try the stairs to the roof over there." Abigail and Dad looked dubious, but they followed her over to the stairs anyway. Sure enough, as they neared the top, a door appeared in mid-air. Abigail grinned, and pushed open the door.

"Welcome to Hawgtharn's Wizarding World!" a pretty cashier greeted them, "new student?"

"Yes," Mum replied.

"Just come with me." she beckoned them, "I will help you choose everything that you need. Now, do you have your school supplies list?" Abigail handed her the list. "Hogwarts!" She looked at Abigail, "are you going to _Hogwarts_?" at the nod, she continued. "That's wonderful! My mother went there, said it was the best time of her life. Hogwarts has black school robes, I believe, the clothing isle is just this way." The funny thing was, Abigail noticed, Hawgtharn's wasn't much different than any other superstore. In fact, it reminded her very much of Zehrs. The welcome witch led them to the clothing isle, and selected several black robes off the rack. "Common day wear," she said, "change-rooms are over there; go on! Try them on." So Abigail took the robes, and entered one of the booths. It took a minute to figure out how to get them on, but eventually she got the knack, and returned with the robes. "They are all too small," she said.

"Okay, then, just try these on dearie." and Abigail was handed another few sets of robes. This time, one set of them fit. "quite the tall one, aren't you? By the way, my name's Bathilda." Bathilda said. "next, winter cloak? This shelf right over here." this time she found Abigail a good fit very quickly, and proceeded on to a shelf of pointed hats. There were some funky ones, but Bathilda picked a very plain, black one with a wide rim. "this will be just perfect for school. I hear the hats in England don't have brims, but that's just foolish of them. The wider the brim the better, I always say. You don't mind a different hat, do you?" she asked Abigail,

"Oh no, not at all."

"Wonderful!" she beamed, "now for the gloves. I recommend dragon hide. They are considerably more expensive, but last much longer. However, these cheap ones could suffice." she said doubtfully, holding a light brown pair up.

"We'll take the dragon hide" Lily said.

"There we go, that was pretty easy!" Bathilda looked pretty happy about that. "most families take a much longer time deciding. Then again, most schools don't require that the robes be black. It causes for many more options." She summoned a floating basket, and put Abigail's new robes in them. Then she directed the Mortons over to the opposite corner of the store, where they could find all the textbooks. On the way they bumped into another family with a daughter Abigail's age.

"Gabby," the girl's mother said, "hurry up! You know you're not allowed to have a broom until you're 12! How many times do I have to tell you?"

"But Mom!" Gabby complained, "the institute allows me to have a broomstick! And Dad lets me fly his all the time!" Slowly their voices faded as they walked away and Abigail was greeted by another Hawgtharn's employee, Natasha. Natasha had dark circles under her eyes, and yawned before she spoke.

"You looking for textbooks?" She smiled tiredly at them, "that shelf over there. Both Abigail and Lily brightened as they looked at the books. This was their area of expertise! As they looked at all the books, Dad found Abigail's school books. Abigail found a 5 volume set: Encyclopedia of the Wizarding World for Muggle Borns. She promised to pay for it with her own money. Lily found several more interesting books, but decided not to get them this time. They loaded all the books in the basket, and walked to the cauldron isle. There, yet another employee greeted them, this time a wizard. "pewter, standard size 2?" he asked,

"yes,"

"Okay, that's all those cauldrons over there." he pointed to a shelf, and then walked off to help another customer. Seeing that they all looked the same, Dad just selected one randomly and handed it to Abigail.

"What next?" Lily asked, and Abigail handed her the list. "A telescope, scales, a set of glass phials, and a wand. Where do we find all this?" Luckily, Abigail spotted an isle a couple of rows down with a sign that said, "first years equipment". They walked over there, and Mum (who was an expert at shopping) selected a very nice set of glass phials for much less than all the others, a set of scales that was also cheaper, although maybe not as nice as the other ones, and two telescopes; Rachel had been looking for a telescope for years, and now that she had the opportunity to buy one did not mind that it was from a wizarding store.

"All that's left," Said Abigail, " is a wand, and..."

"a pet?" her Mum finished for her,

"Yeah," Abigail said, "can I please get one? If I get an owl I can sent letters to you!"

"will you take care of it?" Dad asked,

"yes! I will!"

"Okay, I see the owls over there, let's go get one." So they walked over to the pet corner, and Abigail chose an owl. She chose a great horned owl that was reddish.

"Abigail!" Mum said, "that's HUGE!"

"yeah," she replied, "but I bet It'll be able to fly to Canada more easily! I'm going to name it Helga, after Helga Hufflepuff." Then she chose out a cage for Helga, and got a water and food dish, as well as several mice for the journey. "The wands are over there," and she pointed to a little station against the opposite wall. When they got there, a little old man greeted them.

"Hello, here for a wand?" he asked, and when they nodded, he went and took a wand out of the display. "Try this one." and he handed Abigail a wand. She took it. "Wave it." he said, and she did. Sparks streamed from the end. "Wonderful! First try, that must be a record! Well, there's your wand! 14 inches, cherry wood with unicorn hair core. You are a first year, right?" When they nodded, he went on, "Do you have a trunk? No? Then you'll want one for all your stuff. That isle over there."

They picked out a nice large trunk, and then proceeded to the cashiers. Abigail could hardly contain her excitement as the cashier checked everything through. On the way home she would get to try her wand, play with Helga, and read lots of interesting books!

"1250 dollars?!" mum was saying, "that's a **lot** of money!"

"yes, well," said the cashier, "a new wand, a cauldron, and an owl all cost quite a bit. Pay up, you won't get better prices anywhere." Grumbling, Mum reached into her purse for her checkbook.

"we don't have to get Helga, I guess" Abigail said, disappointed,

"Nonsense!" her mum replied, "it's going to be your only means of communication!" Abigail was happy about that, but still felt a little guilty about the amount that her parents were paying just for her to have a pet owl. And a nice wand. And a brand-new cauldron. However, she didn't feel that guilty. Abigail figured she could pay her parents back pretty easily once she knew magic stuff. For the first time in her life, the car ride wasn't long enough. Abigail only had time to skim through all the school books, pet Helga, and read a chapter about quidditch in her encyclopedia. As soon as they got back home she packed everything into her trunk, and Dad helped her lug it up to her room. Abigail opened her trunk, and took out The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1, and her wand. Then she sat on her bed, and read until she found a spell that she really wanted to do. Ah-hah! Leviosa, the spell that makes things fly! "Leviosa!" she said, and swished her wand at the book. Nothing happened. "Leviosa! Leviosa! After about eight tries, she got it. The book zoomed up, hit the ceiling, and then crashed back onto the bed. Just then Daniel came in.

"Is that your wand?" he asked, "can I try?"

"sure." Abigail said, and gave it to him. He waved it around the room, and sparks zoomed out the end. "Cool!" he said, looking pleased with himself. Abigail looked at him more closely.

"Daniel," she said, "I'm not at all sure, but I don't think muggles can do that."

"Really?" He was only 9, but quite the bright kid. "are you saying what I think you're saying?" He looked pretty excited.

"Well," Abigail said, "I'm not sure. I know! I'll try to teach you a spell, and if you can get it then we'll know that you're one too!" Then she showed him how to do the Leviosa spell. After fifteen minutes he still hadn't got it.

"Leviosa!" he cried, waving the wand wildly, and a picture on Abigail's wall zoomed over to them an knocked Daniel on the head.

"Daniel!" Abigail exclaimed, "you did it! And get this, Professor Dumbledore said that it was rare for both me and grandpa to be magical! It's really improbably for both of us to be magical, but we are!"

Daniel looked pretty pleased with himself. "Does that mean that I get to go to Hogwarts when I'm 11 too?"

"yes! Isn't that wonderful? Keep practicing, and then we can go downstairs and show mum and dad!" So Daniel practiced some more, and after about 10 minutes he was good at it. When they went downstairs, Rachel and Andrew were delighted.

"Imagine that!" mom exclaimed, "With you two around, I'll never have to wash the dishes again!" noticing their disturbed expressions, she clarified, "you can do it with magic!"

"oh yeah!" Abigail said, "and I can do all my chores with magic!" Then, getting an idea, Abigail ran back up to her room and scribbled a note on a piece of paper. "Helga," she said, "I don't know where he is, but please take this to Professor Dumbledore." Helga flew off, and Abigail sat back on her bed to learn another spell. Later that evening, Helga was back. "well," Abigail thought, "he must not be far if I'm getting an answer tonight." She fed a treat to Helga, and opened the note. It said,

_Holly -_

_That is very wonderful that your brother is a wizard. Also very unexpected! No, you are not allowed to do magic outside of Hogwarts after you have been to Hogwarts, but in Canada children that have not yet been trained are allowed to try. So yes, your brother is allowed to get his own wand now, if he absolutely can't wait until he is eleven. Have fun! _

_Professor Dumbledore_

Abigail grinned as she read the note, and then took it downstairs to show Mum, Dad, and Daniel. The next day Abigail babysat Evelyn and Chole while Mum and Dad took Danniel to Hawgtharn's. He came back with a new wand, and a couple of basic spell books. One of them was specifically written for younger kids, and Abigail copied down lots of the useful spells. They were for stuff like making your bed, which was always a problem with the McCraggen kids. Or cleaning up your room. Abigail was delighted, because she felt like she spent half of her life cleaning up her room. And so the days until the twenty-fifth passed with Abigail and Daniel almost perpetually in the basement, learning new spells. Abigail discovered that she had a knack for transfiguration, while Daniel only transfigured stuff with a lot of work, and his objects tended to have many traits of what they previously were. Abigail was also good at charms, and Stephen was only slightly better at that than transfiguration. However, he was saving up all his money for a broom because he had a 'hunch' that he would be good at that. They also spent hours pouring over Abigail's encyclopedia, and attempted to read the history of magic. For their dad's birthday on the 19th, Abigail turned all their plastic pick-nick plates into fine china.

"Abigail!" Dad said, "this is wonderful! Surely such transfiguration is above your level, though."

"It is!" she said, grinning, "I'm a genius!"

"only at transfiguration, though," Daniel said, "she's just good with her wand."

"How do you know?" Abigail retorted, "I haven't tried anything else yet! Magic just works with me. I love it!"

"Well," said John, "I think I love it too. Fine china! With gold decorations!".


	3. Sight-seeing in England

Disclaimer: Harry Potter series is owned by J. K. Rowling

Chapter 3: Sight-seeing in England and the Train to Hogwarts

The 24th of August dawned bright and clear.

"You haven't packed?" Mom asked Abigail, freaking out, "I've packed for the rest of the family, and we're only staying a few weeks! You are packing everything you will have for a year, Abigail!"

"Helga can bring more stuff," Abigail said. Bad thing to say. "you'd think," she complained to Daniel, "that she wouldn't mind sending stuff with Helga. I mean, Helga's a great horned owl for goodness sake!" But Abigail went upstairs to pack for Hogwarts. "Robes, Cloak, hat, gloves," she muttered to herself, "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight school books." she checked off, "Cauldron, scales, telescope, phials, keep the wand for last; Helga's in her cage, owl treats, mice; Keep encyclopedia for last, There! That's all my school stuff! Now for personal possessions: $200 from mom and dad, My stuffed dog, favorite book, journal, horse poster, anything else? Nope. Oh yeah! Camera!" And she packed up everything in her trunk except her wand and encyclopedia. "Hey, Daniel!" she yelled, "are you packed?"

"yeah," he said coming in, "Mum had me do it 2 days ago. I just left out everything that I want until then. Like my wand."

Abigail grinned, "I left out my wand too. Couldn't live without it! Hey, Daniel, I just learned a new spell! It's, 'Waddiwasi', look!" And she sent a book on the shelf rocketing towards Daniel.

"I bet that's 5th year magic," he grumbled. I wish I got to go to Hogwarts this year too.

"Look at it this way," Abigail said, "You can do magic all the time. Now that I'm going to Hogwarts, I won't be allowed to do magic at home. That's a bummer."

"It is," Daniel agreed, "but going to Hogwarts is gonna be worth it." Abigail spent the rest of the day trying to teach Daniel the Waddiwasi charm.

Next morning Abigail was dragged from her bed at 6am.

"We need to be at the airport by eight, and you know how bad traffic is into Toronto." Mum told Abigail, "Dad's loaded everything into the car, let's go!"

"but I haven't had breakfast!" Abigail complained, as she pulled on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt,

"You can eat in the car, come on!" So Abigail ran downstairs, got her shoes and coat on, and hopped in the car where Evelyn, Daniel, and Chloe were already waiting. For the first time in years, Abigail opted to sit in the back with Daniel. Usually, she hated sitting in the back because if she read she got car-sick, whereas if she sat in the middle she just had to look up every minute or so to avoid the symptoms. This time, however, she didn't want to read. She wanted to play with her wand. It was still new, and Abigail still got shivers when she pointed it at something and that something did something. Like turned purple. Or did a somersault. Of course, she hadn't managed that yet, but she brought along several pencils. She had been tutoring Daniel in transfiguration, and he had finally graduated from toothpicks. Abigail was on to small mammals herself, but she didn't expect Daniel to get there for several years at the rate he was going.

"Okay," she said, "remember: 'formam uitta'. Say it! Formam uitta.!"

"Formam uitta" Daniel said.

"Good! Now use your wand, we practiced the movement loads of times, you should have it down by now." Evelyn and Chloe were straining around in their seats to watch.

"Formam uitta." Daniel said. Nothing happened. "Formam uitta!"

"not FormAM UittA, FORmam UItta!"

"FORmam Uitta! Abigail! I did it! The pencil is bendy! uh... that IS what's supposed to happen, right?"

"It's supposed to turn into a ribbon."

"Oh."

"That's okay. It's faster than you got the toothpick! Try again." And by the time they got to the airport Daniel had turned his pencil into a ribbon. Mind you, it was orange and rather roundish, but that's okay. As Abigail said, it's progress. Of course, then there was that whole getting out of the car, and,

"put those things away, you two!" Mum said, "Do you want someone to _see_ you?" Abigail shoved her's into her travel backpack, along with a volume of her Encyclopedia, but Mum made Daniel put his in his suitcase.

"That's okay." Abigail said, "I'll get another volume of my Encyclopedia out of my trunk for you to read on the trip." Once they got into the airport, there was a bit of worry about customs. What would they think about the contents of Abigail's trunk? For some reason, however, it went through fine, and eventually they made it on to the plane.

"First class!" Dad exclaimed, "hah! This is wonderful!" They sat down, Daniel, Abigail, Dad and Chloe in one row, Mum and Evelyn behind them. Abigail and Daniel literally spent the whole trip reading the encyclopedias. It was very boring, but they had nothing better to do, seeing as there were other passengers on the plane and they're wands couldn't be seen. They made good time and landed at five o'clock that evening. After they landed, went through customs, and picked up their suitcases and trunk, a little lady with fiery red hair walked up to them and asked if they were the McCraggens. When Dad said yes, she led them over to a little red car.

"Just right in here," Professor Lautis said, "you can put the trunks in the trunk." Evelyn opened the car door, and said,

"the car is _really big_, Daddy!" Sure enough, when Abigail looked in she saw the inside of a 12 seat van. "Magic!" She thought happily to herself, "I get to learn how to do stuff like this!" Professor Lautis drove them to a hotel, and gave them the keys to the van.

"Just tell them that you're the McCraggens and you have a reservation here" she said, "they'll have maps for sight-seeing; and, of course, a map to king's cross station. See you at Hogwarts, Holly!" she said, and disappeared.

"I saw a restaurant on the way here," Mum said, how 'bout we go there for supper?" Her suggestion was met with cheers.

"Let's just take the suitcases upstairs." Dad said, and brought out a trolly. They piled the suitcases and trunk onto the trolley, and wheeled it into the hotel. Dad told the desk clerk who they were, and got keys to room 407. When they got up to their hotel room, they found a nice soup dinner on the table.

"It would be a shame to waste this." Mum said. "Let's go to the restaurant tomorrow night instead." The kids were disappointed, but Dad agreed. And, the soup was indeed delicious.

Abigail was so excited that she didn't fall asleep until about three o clock in the morning. She was up and ready to go at six the next morning. They spent the next 6 days learning all about England that they could. Stephen's favorite place was the bloody tower, and while Abigail loved looking at all the jewels, she and her sisters found the weapons slightly disturbing. Not very disturbing of course, just not as interesting as Daniel found them. What Abigail really loved were all the cathedrals. And Buckingham palace was cool too. Actually, any architecture was interesting! Big Ben was Evelyn's favorite. The days passed quickly, and before she knew it Abigail was saying good-bye to her family.

"I won't see you until next spring!" she cried, "please write lots."

"Of course we will," Mum replied,

"We'll write to Holly." Daniel said.

"Yeah! Abigail said, brightening, "I'm going to Hogwarts!" Just then the conductor shouted,

"All aboard!" And with one last hug, Holly bounded onto the train. As the train Jolted and started to move, Holly ran to the nearest window and waved until her family was out of sight. Actually, she waved a little while after her family was out of sight. Then, lugging along her trunk, Holly started looking in compartments. Most of them were full, but finally Holly found one with only two other boys in it.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" She asked, "everywhere else is full."

"No problem," said one of the boys,

"Where are you from?" said his twin.

"Canada." Holly replied, "do I have an accent?"

"I'd say you do!" said twin no. 1,

"Hogwarts takes students from other countries?" said twin no. 2.

"Well," Holly explained, "my family is kinda... um..."

"Connected?" said twin no. 2

"Yeah." Holly said. "I'm Holly by the way, Holly McCraggen."

"I'm George." said twin number 2, "George Weasley. That's Fred."

"Pleased to meet you!" Holly said, "you're from around here, right?"

"yeah" said Fred

"First year, right?" asked George,

"yeah" said Holly. "you two are too, right?"

"yeah". Just then the door opened, and an Asian boy peeked in.

"Mind if I sit here?" He asked, "everywhere else is full." Holly shoved her trunk further towards the window, and then scooted after it. "I'm Lee Jordan." The boy said. "You are?"

"George Weasley"

"Holly McCraggen"

"Fred Weasley"

"Holly McCraggen?" he asked, "are you one of those McCraggens descended from Hufflepuff?"

"yeah," Holly said, "but how do you know about that?"

"well," he said, "let's just say my mom is really into Hogwarts history."

"You're descended from Helga Hufflepuff?" Fred asked, amazed.

"No," Lee said, "from Holly Hufflepuff, her sister."

"this here's Helga Hufflepuff." Holly said, gesturing to her owl. George whistled.

"that's one huge owl!" Fred said,

"It's a Canadian breed." Holly said.

"Do all Canadians get really big?" Lee Joked, "Or just the better looking ones?"

"I guess that would explain why the English owls are smaller," Holly said, "but I don't think that's the case. Canadians are certainly better looking though."

"I could argue with that." George said, striking a pose, and everyone laughed appreciatively.

"Do you know magic?" Holly asked, "I just found out I was a witch recently, so I haven't had much time to try stuff. But I'd _love_ to see more!"

"Oh yeah." Fred said,

"We know loads!" said George, "for example: drangall cormation!" they shouted, pointing their wands at the curtains, which immediately tried to strangle Lee. After freeing him, George said,

"we invented that ourselves!"

"you DID?" Holly and Lee asked, amazed, "that's incredible!"

"thanks." Fred said modestly, "we're geniuses after all."

"really?" Holly asked, "self-proclaimed or otherwise? I'm a self-proclaimed genius, but nobody believes me."

"Otherwise!" George said. "I didn't tell myself that I'm a genius, Fred told me!"

"And vice-versa." Fred said.

"Brilliant." Holly said, "I wish I had a twin. Imagine all the trouble I could get into!"

"You're a trouble-maker?" Fred asked, interested,

"subtly." Holly said. "I like to make trouble, but have other people look guilty."

"Ah, yes." George said, "whereas we prefer to take credit for out unforgettable and amazing deeds."

"yes, well," she said, "seeing as nobody would dream of accusing me, there are more opportunities for causing trouble."

"That makes sense." Fred said, "I guess we're lucky. One of us can commit the crime while the other makes a distraction."

"And as for me," Lee said, "I'm so busy helping other friends cause trouble that I do very little of it myself."

"that's fine," Fred consoled him, "at least you help. Some goody goodies even rat out the trouble-makers!"

George tskd. "Do you know what house you'll be in?" he asked, "Fred an I are almost bound to be Gryffindor."

"I dunno, said Lee. Probably Hufflepuff if I'm really unlucky. And as I tend to be so, probably Hufflepuff."

"I don't know." Holly said, "I mean, I'm descended from Holly Hufflepuff, but as far as I can tell I'm either going to be in Ravenclaw or Slytherin."

"You don't want to be in slytherin." Fred, George, and Lee said, "they're all bad."

"not necessarily," Holly argued, "I'm smart, competitive, sometimes ruthless, and don't follow rules very well. I would do well in Slytherin. Then again, I am everything that Ravenclaw values. Kinda frustrating, really, I'd like to know what to expect."

"Griffendors aren't goody goodies!" Fred said, "I hope you two are with us. Then we can cause trouble together."

"Well let's promise right now," Holly said, "that whatever house we're in, we'll still break the rules together. That way I'll finally have a partner in crime, because If I do end up in Slytherin I won't like most of the other kids there, and I've gotten the impression that Ravenclaws are goody-goody."

"Yeah!" Lee said, "because If I do end up in Hufflepuff, I don't think many of them will be up for regular nighttime excursions either."

"Sure!" Fred said,

"Okay," said George, "we should have a name for ourselves. Something like, the KARA. For Kids Against Rules Always."

"but we aren't _against_ rules." Holly said, "It would be no fun if there weren't any rules to break. How about KWBR; Kids Who Break Rules."

"KFTF" Lee said. "Kids For The Fun, short for Kids For The Fun Of It."

"Well," Fred said, "I move that we all sleep on it until we come up with a truly brilliant name." Everyone thought that was a good Idea, so the shook on it, and ate lunch. A few minutes later, a lady with a trolly came by.

"Pumpkin pastries, anyone?" she asked, "Chocolate frogs? Bertie Bott's Every flavor beans?"

"How much are the chocolate frogs?" Holly asked. She had, of course, read about them in her encyclopedia.

"1 sickle each!"

"Oh," Holly said, "no thanks."

"Same." Fred and George said mournfully, "It appears that we forgot to bring pocket money."

"Four chocolate frogs, and one pack of Bertie Botts" Lee said, and everyone else looked at him enviously. "I'm not going to gloat about it!" He defended himself, "I'm getting one for each of us!"

"oh!" Everyone was happy again.

"That's very kind of you!" George said,

"We accept!" Said Fred,

"And if you don't like yours, I'll finish it off for you I guess." Holly said.

"Thank-you. That's very generous of you." Lee said sarcastically, "what a sacrifice."

"All for the sake of friendship!"


	4. Hogwarts!

**Harry potter and me.**

**Please note! Some of the content may be by J.K. Rowling, as well as some of the characters and setting! I do not claim ownership of all of my story, it is based on Harry Potter!**

Chapter 4: Hogwarts!

"Look!" Holly said, "I got Dumbledore!"

"Ah, we've got three of him." Fred said, "does anyone have Montgomery?"

"Nope," Lee said, "I just got another Penlohosen. No one else seems to have him, but I get him practically every time. I think my older brother put a jinx on me to only get him."

"Oooh! Can we have him?" George asked, "We only have one Penlohosen!"

"Sure," Lee said, and tossed it across the table. Slowly, the light faded, and the electric lights inside the train flickered on. Finally, the train lurched to a stop, and everyone stood up. Holly started to drag her trunk out the door of the compartment, but Fred stopped her.

"Just leave it here," he said, "the conductor will get it." So Holly fed a treat to Helga to keep her quiet, and then Followed the boys out the door.

"Firs years!" someone bellowed, "Firs' Years! Over here!" And the four followed it's sound to a big, muscular giant.

"Are you a giant?" Lee asked, in awe,

"No," he replied, "I'm Hagrid. Come on, kids, inta the boat wih' ya!" And so they all chose a boat, and stepped in. Once everyone was seated, the boats began to paddle themselves across the lake.

"Look at the stars!" Holly heard someone exclaim.

"City kid," she muttered to George.

"No kidding" he replied, "It's cloudy! This is nothing! You live in the country?"

"yeah. You too?"

"yeah." The boats bumped up against the dock, and Everyone hopped out.

"righ' this way," Hagrid said, "follow me, everyone." And they followed him into the huge castle that was Hogwarts. Once they were inside the castle, the first years were greeted by an old lady named Professor McGonagall. Then they followed her into the dining hall, where they were told to line up in front of the sorting hat. To Holly's amazement, a rip in the brim of the hat opened, and it began to sing:

_Oh you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_a smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave of heart,_

_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

_Set Gryffindors apart._

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

_And unafraid of toil._

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

_If you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning_

_Will always find their kind._

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folks use any means_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

_For I'm the thinking cap!_

Holly's hands were sweaty. This was it! The test that would pretty much define who she would become! Well, not really, but it would certainly affect it.

"Abbot, Jacob." Professor McGonagall said,

"Hufflepuff!" The hat shouted immediately,

"Brown, Lillian."

The hat was quiet for a few seconds, then, "Slytherin!"

"Brown, David."

"Slytherin!"

"Dante, Grace."

"Gryffindor!"

After each house was called, the other people of the house clapped. Finally, Professor McGonagall said,

"Morton, Holly." And with sweating hands, Holly walked up to the sorting hat and put it on her head. "Hi!" It said,

"Uh, hi?" she replied,

"you want to know what house you'll be in?"

"yeah."

"well, actually you would do well in all of them, which one do you want to be in?"

"I want to be in the house that will improve me the most." Holly said.

"Ahh. Well in that case; RAVENCLAW!" it shouted. All the Ravenclaws clapped, and Holly went and sat down at the table. A few moments later, the sorting hat again shouted 'Ravenclaw!', although Holly missed who it shouted it about. A tall red-haired girl plopped down beside her.

"Hi!" she said, "I'm Latisha Randle. Who are you?"

"Holly McCracken." Holly said, "are you from Ireland?"

"My accent, eh?" Latisha said, "yeah, I am. And you're not from England either, right?"

"No," Holly said, "I'm from Canada."

"Cool!" Latisha said, "Yeah, we just moved here, so I guess I get to go to Hogwarts! That's nice."

"I'm descended from Hufflepuff, apparently, so I got special permission to come here." Holly told Latisha. Just then Fred walked up and put the hat on. Almost before it was on it's head the hat shouted, "Gryffindor!" Grinning broadly, he went and sat down beside George at the Gryffindor table.

"He said he'd be in Gryffindor." Holly said.

"You know him?" Latisha asked.

"We were in the same compartment on the train."

"He's kinda cute!" Latisha giggled, "by the way, please call me Lattie. Latisha is just formal."

"Okay," Holly said, "I don't have a nickname yet, but you can call me anything you want."

"you've never had a nickname?"

"Well," Holly explained, "I just named myself Holly. In the non-magical world I'm Abigail McCracken."

"oh! That's cool! I always wanted to be Elizabeth," Lattie said, "but I could never get people to call me something other than Lattie."

"Well, It helps that no one here knows my real name is Abigail."

"Yeah, that would. So what should I call you?"

"How about Abi? I know it's short for Abigail, but you know what my real name is, so you can call my Abi if you promise not to tell anyone what it's short for."

"Sure! We'll be Lattie and Abi." Holly grinned. Lattie grinned back. Then a boy across the table introduced himself to them. He was about a year older than them, and his name was Cedric Diggory. Hogwarts was, all in all, more than Holly's encyclopedia could ever describe. Lattie seemed to agree, when she wispered, 'wow!' every few minutes. After the banquet was over, all the remaining food disappeared. Then Dumbledore said a few words, and everyone was dismissed. Holly and Lattie gazed around them in awe as they followed their prefect to the Ravenclaw common room. They waved to the portraits, and cautiously went up the moving stairs. Finally, they went up a spiral staircase, and the knocker asked them,

"What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?"

"A towel." Their prefect replied, and they walked in. Holly was suddenly very glad that she was in Ravenclaw. She was sure that there could be no room as pretty.

"Look up" Lattie whispered, and Holly did. The ceiling was painted with stars. Holly could have happily lain there for hours looking at them, but a little dwarf named professor Flitwick walked in and introduced himself. Then he showed the first-years to their dormitories. Holly (thankfully!) shared a dormitory with Lattie. They raced up the stairs ahead of the other girls, and picked two beds side by side at the far end of the room, under a large window. Then a few more girls came in, and they all introduced themselves.

"I'm Rowena." a girl with brown curly hair said.

"As in," asked Lattie, "Rowena Ravenclaw?"

"I'm named after her." Rowena admitted, "I get that a lot. I'd prefer if you didn't expect high acedemic achievement from me."

"Well you're in Ravenclaw, aren't you?" another girl asked,

"Yeah," Rowena said, "but I bet that's mainly because the rest of my family was too."

"Not necessarily." Holly said, "I'm descended from Hufflepuff, and look where I am."

"You ARE?" gaped Rowena, "cool!"

"Anyway," Lattie intervened, "who are you?" A shy girl with blond mumbled something susan-ish, and then another brown haired girl spoke up,

"I'm Jo." she said. "And I can't believe that I'm in Ravenclaw! I thought for sure I'd be Gryffindor. It's a dissapointment, really." This raised a babble of voices from the other girls.

"The sorting hat really wanted to put me in Slytherin," Holly said, "but I convinced it otherwise." Lattie, on the other hand, was 100% Ravenclaw. "So let's go around in a circle," she said, "and say our names and what houses we should have been in. I'm Lattie Randle, of Irish descent, and I have no problem with the house that I have been put in."

"I'm Holly McCracken, and I barely talked the Sorting Hat out of putting me in Slytherin."

"I'm Jo, like I said before," Jo said, Glaring at Holly, "and I should have been in Gryffindor. I don't know what went wrong that I should be put in Ravenclaw. I can't believe that I'm sharing a dormitory with a Slytherin!"

"Well obviously," Holly retorted, "the thing that's wrong is that you weren't brave or noble enough to be a Gryffindor, nice enough to be a Hufflepuff, or loyal and clever enough to be a Slytherin. I can't believe you made it into Hogwarts at all!"

"OH YEAH?" Jo yelled, jumping to her feet, but just then shy little Susan jumped between them.

"Shut up you two!" she exclaimed, "we're room mates for goodness sake! Maybe," turning to Lattie who had been staring open-mouthed at the argument, "saying where we think we ought to have been is not a wise idea. I'm Susan Gordon, by the way."

"Just a sec." Holly said, and ran out of their dormitory. Coming into the Ravenclaw common room, Holly spotted Professor Flitwick talking to another student and walked over to him.

"Professor Flitwick," she said, "May I talk to you for a moment?" When he said sure, they walked over to a quiet corner of the room and Holly told him her concerns.

"See," she concluded, "I seriously doubt that I should have talked the sorting hat into putting me in Ravenclaw. It's just that I had heard bad things about Slytherin."

"I see." Professor Flitwick said. "and seeing as you have given perfectly valid reasons, and I have not ever dealed with a case like this, I believe we should take the matter to Dumbledore himself." Thus saying, he led Holly out of the Ravenclaw tower, across the castle, and to a stone statue of a Griffin. "Lolliepops" he said, and the gryffin jumped out of the way. They walked up a twisting staircase, and into an immense and curiously furnished office. However, Holly did not have much time to look around. Once Professor Flitwick was explaining what Holly had told him, Holly had a chance to look around. The first thing that struck her was an enormous bird sitting on a perch. Then she noticed the sorting had sitting on a shelf behind the phonex, and waved at it. It winked back.

"So you think you should have been put in Slytherin, do you?" Dumbledore asked, and when Holly nodded, "well, try the hat on! We'll see what it has to say." So Holly walked over to the shelf and put the hat on.

"You're back!" it exclaimed,

"You knew perfectly well I was here." Thought Holly,

"That I did," the Hat said, "but what are you putting me on for?"

"Can't you guess?"

"You want to be resorted?"

"yep."

"That's unusal! Well then, let's see. You are either a Slytherin or a Ravenclaw. Last I talked to you, you did not want to be slytherin, so I put you in Ravenclaw. What's wrong now? Ahh, I see. Nasty things, arguments, aren't they? Yes, I know Jo is an idiot, but she's also incredibly smart and therefore a Ravenclaw. What? Oh, you're right. Yes, she's too much of an idiot to be anything else. Yes. No. Well, Holly, it is a very tough decision. It all comes down to which you want to be. Uh huh? Well I can promise you, there will be more Jos in Slytherin than in Ravenclaw. Okey dokey. So tell Dumbledore that you're still in Ravenclaw." And Holly took off the hat.

"I'm in Ravenclaw." She said, grinning, "it just turns out that Jo's a jerk."

"Good." Dumbledore smiled at her, "congradulations!" Then Flitwick led her back to the common room, where she thanked him for his trouble, and proceeded to the dormitories.

"you're back!" Lattie grinned, bouncing on the bed, "where were you?"

"I got resorted."

"you didn't!" she gasped, and everyone else sat up and looked at Holly.

"well?" Jo asked, "are you leaving?"

"Well," Holly said, "the sorting hat said that I could choose. And that there were more jerks like you in slytherin. So I decided to stay." Everyone cheered. Except Jo, of course.


	5. Clases, teachers, enemies, friends

**Disclaimer: I'm sorry, dearest readers, but this is actually _not_ another work by the genius J.K.R. :( I'm just writing a little story and totally messing up her characters :0**

**Chapter 5: Classes, teachers, enemies, friends.**

The next morning, Holly woke up early and looked around in satisfaction. Beside Laticia McCracken, Susan Gordon, Rowena Lemont, and Jo Gibbons, there were Grace Angleford and Cuthburt Babbling. Cuthburt was the younger sister of Bathsheiba Babbling, the muggle studies teacher. Laticia had bright red hair. Holly, Rowena and Cuthburt had brown hair. Grace and Susan had blond hair, and Jo was black-haired. Being sure to be very quiet, Holly got dressed in her new black school robes, her new blue and bronze scarf, and her witch's hat. Then she grabbed her wand and tiptoed out of the dormitory. Closing the door to the common room (and not without trepidation, seeing as she wasn't sure that she could get back in), Holly walked down the stairs and found her way to the dining hall. Holly had a good sense of direction that would probably come in handy when sneaking around the castle. In the dining hall, she saw Fred and George eating a very early breakfast and went to join them.

"Good!" Fred grinned, "we'd hoped you were an early riser. Shall we explore?"

"Sure" Holly said, grabbing a piece of toast and standing up again, "let's start on the top floor and work our way down."

"Why the top floor?" George asked curiously,

"Because the Slytherins are in the dungeons."

"Ahh." And thus saying, they made their way up the many staircases, figuring that if they kept moving up they'd get to the top sooner or later. At one point, Holly fell through a step that wasn't there. After pulling it out, the kids marked it on the map excitedly.

"This castle has great potential!" George exclaimed, "look at this!" and he walked through the wall. Following him, Holly and Fred found themselves in a deserted classroom.

"ooh!" Holly said, "I move that we make this our temporary home base!"

"Sure!" Fred said,

"We'll tell Lee!" Said George, "the sleepyhead wouldn't get out of bed." Holly tsked. Finally, they found their way up to the astronomy tower.

"Here it is!" Holly said, "the highest tower in Hogwarts!" Then they took out a fresh piece of parchment, and did a rough sketch of where each tower was, which buidings were where, where the quidditch pitch was, et cetera. Then they decided to run over to the owlry before breakfast.

"Eww!" Holly said, when she stepped in owl pellets. "I wonder what _that_ used to be?" Then she found Helga and gave her a treat that she found in her pocket. Fred and George sent a note with Errol, the family owl, 'because mom would FREAK if she didn't hear from us.' And then the three of them went back down to the great hall 'wouldn't want to miss breakfast no. 2!'. On the way, they got lost, but thanks to that whole stairs take you down thing, they made their way to the ground floor, and then met up with professor Sprout who showed them the way to the great hall. Then they seperated, and went their seperate ways. "Meet you at base 10pm" Fred whispered, "I'll tell Lee." And Holly walked over to the Ravenclaw table where the rest of her roommates were waving at her.

"Where were you?" Susan asked,

"Yeah, breakfast's almost over!" Lattie added.

"I was sending a letter to my parents." Holly explained, somewhat truthfully. Breakfast was almost over. Holly only had about 2 minutes to eat before the food unexpectedly dissapeared.

"Here," said Lattie, handing Holly a timetable, "Professor Flitwick gave them to us this morning." Holly looked at her timetable and saw that (yes!) transfiguration was first. She practically ran to the classroom. Standing in line at the door were Fred, George, and Lee.

"what are you doing here?" Holly asked,

"Gryffindor and Ravenclaw are together for transfiguration." Lee told her. In the class, Professor McGonagall told them all about transfiguration, gave a little example, and then they set about trying to transfigure a toothpick. Holly, Fred, and George got it almost immediately. Same in charms. They weren't together, but that night in the classroom they gathered together and discussed the day.

"Charms is a nightmare!" Lee said, and was instantly sorry that he had said so when Fred, George, and Holly protested. As it turned out, Fred and George shared Holly's knack for Charms and Transfiguration. Lee was already a genius at Defense against the dark arts, and Fred was half decent. George was only slightly better than Holly. They were all so-so at everything else.

"Anyone have a name yet?" Fred asked, and that is what they brainstormed about for half an hour. But were no better off after. Two days later, however, Fred and George were waiting anxiously as Holly and Lee walked in.

"We're the maurarders!" Fred said, and George showed Holly and Lee the Maurarders map.

"This is incredible!" Holly grinned, "Aah! Filch is coming, but look! There's a secret tunnel right around the corner... and it leads to the kitchens!" So they all ran off to the kitchens, where the house elves were more than happy to give them food. On the way there, the four decided that they would take on the names of the origional maurarders; Fred was Prongs, Holly sunffles, Lee wormtail, and George moony.

"I wonder what the names mean?" George mused.

And so the days passed, and Holly McCracken's life fell into a routene. She excled at classes, even potions, and eventually grew competant at quidditch (due mainly to Fred and George's relentless coaching). The maurarders learned many usefull spells, and were almost done memorizing the map. Holly was the maurarders spy, and secret agent, while fred and george were the advertizers. So, everybody knew Fred and George, but nobody had the slightest inkling that Holly was involved. That was very advantegious. The rift between Holly and Jo widened. It was as bad as the one between quidditch freak/keeper Oliver Wood and the slytherin captain Marcius Flint. Holly didn't care who won, because so far she hated both equally. Holly couldn't believe that Fred and George cheered for Wood.

"He's a jerk!" she said, "only a nut would only care about quidditch!"

"Quidditch is awesome"

"Sure, but to live, breathe, and _eat_ quidditch; you must admit that's a little over the top."

"yeah, but he's a good keeper."

"so what? You're brother is better! You're probably gonna be better!"

"how can you compare a seeker with a keeper? Anyway, it's his 1st year as keeper, give him a break, Holly."

"His being keeper for the first time does not explain his obsession!" That pretty much ended the meeting for the night.

"Wait!" Lee called after the three, "what about the potion we're brewing?"

"you can finish it." George called back over his shoulder.

When Holly got back to the ravenclaw common room, to her dismay she saw Jo, sitting in front if the fire. Turning around, Jo smiled maliciously at Holly.

"Well, dear, where have you been? We missed you."

"Saving the world." Holly replied with a straight face.

"Is that so? And was it more conveniant to save the world after curfew? Or maybe your intentions were not quite so honorable and you could not afford to be caught?" There was a reason Jo was in Ravenclaw. But there was a reason that Holly was in Ravenclaw too.

"Of course it was more conveniant after curfew, I couldn't afford to have a girl like you get in my way, could I?"

"Ahhh, but I think I _am_ in the way."

"Actually, you're not. Goodnight." and Holly ran up to the dormitories. Before Jo came up, Holly scribbled a note:

_Moony, Prongs;_

_we need to learn the confundus charm. I found out about it this afternoon in the library, and it could come in usefull. Tell Wormtail._

_-Snuffles_

And gave it to Helga.

"take this to Fred and George," she instructed, "immediatly, please." And Helga flapped off. By the time Jo got up to the dormitories, Holly appeared to be fast asleep. However, suspecting otherwise, Jo got into bed and also pretended to sleep while closly watching Holly. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later Holly got up, went to the window, and let Helga in.

"Thanks." she murmered, and Helga flapped back to the owlry. Still watching, Jo saw Holly open the note, read it, smile, and go back to bed. Moments later Holly fell asleep. The next morning Holly foolishly suspected nothinig. She picked up the note and threw it in the fire, Jo smiling with self satisfaction behind her. What did the note say?

_Good idea Snuffles._

_-Prongs (moony and I'll tell wormtail)_

From then on it was Jo's mission to figure out who Moony, Prongs, Snuffles and Wormtail were. Of course, it seemed logical that McCracken was snuffles. But who were the other three? And how could she get them in trouble?

The next day Holly spent all of lunch break in the library researching the confundus charm. She even signed out a book and read it through her history of magic class, and didn't waste her time for once. Not that history of magic wasted her time, it was really quite facinating. Holly just considered the charm a more valuble bit of time spent. During supper, Holly scribbled a note and charmed it so that it would fly discretely into Lee's lap. That was a trick that they'd come up with for communication. Jo watched Holly out of the corner of her eye, but lost track of where the note went. Two tables over, Lee picked up a note and whispered, 'eleven o'clock' to Fred and George. Fortunatly, they were missed by Jo who was scanning the great hall looking for other conspiertors. As the kids were dismissed, Holly and Lattie made their way out to the quidditch pitch to watch an exciting game between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. The two were, of course, humiliated when Slytherin won.

"As soon as I'm old enough," Lattie told Holly, "I am going to try out for the team and lead them to victory!"

"That's noble of you!" Holly giggled, "are you really that good?"

"I'm fantastic. I'm a keeper, you know, and not one of my brothers has ever got a quaffle past me."

"That's not saying much," Holly retorted, "seeing as you don't have any brothers! Anyway, when I get back home I'm going to buy myself a cheap second-hand broom and practise even if I don't have any talent. 'Cause I want to be on the team too!"

"I'm offended," Lattie defended herself, "_you_ can't even stay on a broom!"

"So much for best friends encouriging each other about their dreams!"

"Yeah, well, I'll kiss Prime-minister Fudge the day you make it onto the team."

"The deal's on," Holly grinned, "and I'll kiss Fred Weasley if I don't."

"_really_?" Lattie gasped, "I mean, I wasn't actually serious! I can't let you do this Holly!" But Holly winked cheekily at her friend and went to informe the three boys of Slytherin's win.

That evening, after the boys tried to console Holly about the Ravenclaw loss, the four came up with a list of usefull spells.

"Well," Holly said, "We really need to learn the confundous charm. I think Jo is getting really suspicious."

"the brat" Lee muttered under his breath,

"How about the glamour charm?" (George) "So that we can sneak around the castle more easily?"

"yeah!" Holly said enthustiacally, "and we should find some good pranks too. Jo really needs to be pushed off her high-horse."

"-and pranks" Fred muttered, scribbling down everything.

"Wait!" Holly interrupted, "I think I hear something." She tipeoed to the door, and flung it open. Unsuprisingly, Jo was lurking behing it. "confundous" Holly said, and immediately Jo's eyes went blank. "you suspect nothing. You heard nothing. You were in bed all evening, and so was I. Got it?"

"yes," Jo muttered, and walked back to bed.

"Holly!" Fred said, "I thought you wanted to learn that spell! You already know it?"

"yeah," Holly blushed, "I am pretty incredible, after all."

"well, teach us!" George said, so they spent the evening learning the confundous charm.

"Okay," Fred said, a little after midnight, "Holly, you find out as much as you can about the glamour charm. And keep your eyes open for possible prank spells. George, Lee, we'll search for pranks. Sound good?" and they all snuck back to their dormitories. The next morning, Jo said nothing. Holly mentally congradulated herself. Next up: the glamour charm. After having a stroke of genius, Holly went to talk to Professor Flitwick.

"Hello, Holly!" He said, beaming at his student, "how can I help you?"

"well, sir," Holly said, "could you teach me the glamour charm? As soon as I found out I was a witch I wanted to do it, and I think if I work really hard I can."

"well," he said, "it is quite a bit above your level... but you _are_ a ravenclaw – and extremely talented at charmes. So we'll give it a shot."

Holly was thrilled. "thank-you so much!"

That evening, Holly met the boys in the empty classroom to compare notes.

"look!" she exclaimed, and pointing the wand at Lee. He dissapeared.

"hey!" he protested, "how are ladies supposed to fawn over my good looks if they can't see me?"

"It's an improvement," George commented wryly, "I suggest you keep him that way, Holly."

In reward for his remark George disappeared as well. A couple of seconds later, Holly screamed and was turned upside down in the air.

"Now, now, children. Settle down." Fred said, in a remarkable immitation of Professor Binns. Holly waved her wand, and George and Lee reappeared.

"That was brilliant!" Lee exclaimed, "how did you learn it? I thought it was an extremely difficult cuse that no first year would be able to imagine handling!"

"Lee,_ really_!" Holly said, jokingly exasperated, "how many times do I have to tell you that I'm a genius?"

"but you're not that good," Fred said, "how did you learn it in an afternoon?"

Holly grinned. "I got Professor Flitwick to teach it to me. Apperantly it is one of his specilties, and I seemed to get it much easier than some other charms. I guess it's one of my specilties too. Anyway, what have you boys got?"

George uncrumpled a piece of parchment from his pocket and began to list them off. "First off, we thought that we should pay attention to upgrading this room. You know, make it a safer place to meet. That is a project alone that could take us a while. As for pranks, well, how about a love potion?"

Holly clapped, "brilliant!" she said "that's just brilliant! And I had an idea too; after we have upgraded this room, you know, if we ever need something to do we could research spells that affect the victim's thought process. You know, like makes them all giggly or something. Stuff like the love potion. Then we could also figure out some fun transfiguration spells and potions that affect the victim's physical appearance. Sounds good?" And they all shook on it.


	6. Chapter 6 - The end for now

**Okay. So, I will continue to write this story on the side (maybe) but don't expect an update soon. Most people seem to like my other story 'To be a Hufflepuff' better. Seeing as I want to update that as frequently as possible, that is what I'll be spending most of my time on. So maybe I'll come back to this story later. I was planning on skipping to 4th year.**


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